A couple of random things I wanted to throw out.

1) They were using thermal imaging in the search. It seems to me that more effective use of fire could have helped greatly in his rescue.

2) It sounds like the family funded significaint parts of the search including the employment of search helicopters. I'm not quite sure what this means (I certainly don't begrudge them for applying their resources to the problem), except that rescue may have been slower for those w/o the ability to charter such services and perhaps that needs consideration in preparing for such an event.

3) While obviously I don't know what really happened, it keeps troubling me that he didn't seem to make effective use of fire to regulate his heat. Growing up in southeast Alaska, you consider the primary thing you need to do to stay alive is to keep warm. Thus a lot of thought about fire. There was wood in the area and the reports indicate he had some lighters. Even if I was going to try to walk out, I would have stopped, built a fire to warm up periodically.

4) And why burn the tires when there is wood? It sounds like it has been reported to stay warm, but I suspect it was more likely that he was hoping for smoke which might be spotted. Perhaps he didn't tell his wife this for fear of alarming her.

-john